I woke up this morning all excited after a CRAZY dream. This is going to sound radical, maybe even ridiculous but I reckon it could work.
Bear with me Tiger fans...
Ok so with all our injuries, particularly to our talls, I believe the best thing would be to go with a small forward line. Yep, just ONE tall forward. Jack R one out, if he doesn't mark it he brings the ball to ground. I can hear you saying already it wouldn't work in a million years but hang on !
Then, the plan is to have a group of fleet footed small forwards buzzing around, applying pressure, keeping the ball in our half and kicking the odd amazing goal ! We have the cattle MRJ, Mansell, Cumbo etc
On top of that we have Dusty being Dusty (just let him play where he feels most dangerous), Shai being Shai (just let him be himself), Sonsie, Clarke and Cotch types delivering the ball into Jack. All Jack has to do it mark it and slot the goal or bring it down to the little fellas to go wild ! It's such a great plan !
The key to this will be even more radical...wait for it...we use a midfielder to 2nd ruck !! I know it sounds cray cray but hear me out. Someone like Marlion or Kamdyn could give our solo ruckman a chop out for 5-10mins a quarter. Yes it will look ridiculous seeing a six footer go up against Mason Cox or Jarrod Witts but people won't laugh as much when we win ! It also means we have an extra midfielder helping us keep pressure around the ball and create an outnumber. Do you see ??
Here's the other thing, we LET the other team get the ball. I know, I know it will never work but this is why, because we then get the ball BACK off a turnover ! Yep !
By now you probably think I'm nuttier than a jar of um peanut butter but my guess is that turnovers are going to be the hottest thing in football. I usually have a sixth sense about these things. (I once helped the Harlem Globetrotters when they had a crisis of confidence and look how that turned out ! Now they really look like that have lots of confidence !)
Our all-over-the-ground pressure (because we have more midfielders now than the oppos still labouring with a 6'10" second ruckman) put on so much pressure that our half backline gets easy turnover after easy turnover!
It doesn't end there tho. We then run in numbers like a tidal wave, no hang on a tidal SURGE and force the ball forward NO MATTER WHAT! Knock ons, tap ons, diving lunges and lots and lots of forward handballs and hacked kicks, anything to keep the ball moving forward. I'm pretty sure this will end up in a bombardment of goals for us and simply devastate the other teams.
They won't know what hit them and they won't know what to do ! The AFL will be SO HAPPY with us for evolving football into a beautiful spectacle ! We may even get a special prize from Gil for saving our precious game and making it more enjoyable to watch. Many many fans will jump on our bandwagon because we are so pretty to watch.
Sigh, I'm so excited ! Can you imagine how much the football world will embrace us ! All we need is a coach with the courage of his convictions to turn this big man injury adversity into massive positivism.
It's probably going to need a shake up between the ears, some real forward thinking and we'll need the entire club to support it from the president, the board and the CEO right down to the boot studder to get behind it. Maybe even get some club psychs in there to get the players getting their minds right to play a style of footy that looks at what a player CAN do, not what a player CAN'T.
Imagine that. They will write books about it some day...
